“We need correct information to protect ourselves”

In January the CWS Timor Leste team went to Bobonaro District on the country’s western border with Indonesia for an information session with F-FDTL members stationed there. In earlier postings, Sergeant Ernesto A. da Costa, the current Bobonaro commander is very familiar with the CWS HIV prevention program and said, “I have learned a lot about prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STI) from our partners at CWS and our own F-FDTL peer educators in past postings; and, I have personally joined five information sessions so far. I have heard about the risks that cases of HIV can keep increasing, so I feel grateful that we can get free and correct information about HIV prevention thanks to support from CWS whose staff are always on hand to answer questions.”

“Since our soldiers are mobile and move around the country a lot, and even overseas sometimes”, Sergeant Ernesto said, “We need correct information to protect ourselves. Many of us are unmarried, and those who are married are far away from their spouses and, sometimes, to not remain faithful. So we need practical information, and good quality condoms, to protect us because we know there is no cure for HIV, and so we must protect ourselves – and others.”

Church World Service is a faith-based organization transforming communities around the globe through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement and disaster.